Contractor Markup Calculator
Enter your job cost and desired margin or markup to get the right price to charge — and never confuse margin vs. markup again.
Calculate From
Margin = profit ÷ revenue. A 25% margin requires charging more than cost + 25%.
Markup = profit ÷ cost. A 33% markup yields ~25% margin.
Results
How Contractors Should Price Their Work
One of the most common and expensive mistakes contractors make: confusing markup with margin. A contractor who wants to make 25% on a job but adds 25% to their cost will actually only make a 20% margin — leaving real money on the table on every single job.
Markup vs. Margin — The Formula
Margin is calculated on the selling price: Profit ÷ Revenue. If you want 25% margin, divide your cost by 0.75 (1 minus 0.25).
Markup is calculated on cost: Profit ÷ Cost. If you add 33% to your cost, you get approximately 25% margin.
To achieve a 25% margin, you need a 33.3% markup. To achieve a 30% margin, you need a 42.9% markup. This calculator does the math automatically — just enter your cost and what you want to make.
What Markup Should Contractors Use?
There's no universal answer — it depends on your overhead, competition, and market. But as a general guide: most successful contractors target 20–30% margin (which means 25–43% markup on cost). New contractors often underprice because they don't account for overhead in their cost base.
A better approach: use historical job profit data to calculate what margin you've actually achieved — then adjust your markup formula to hit your targets consistently.
Track Real Margins on Every Job
Hardhat Ledger shows your actual profit margin per job — so you know if your pricing is working.
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